Open Source Software Vs Proprietary Software Sakshi Singh, Madhvik Verma, Naveen Kumar N
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 735 ISSN 2229-5518 Open Source Software Vs Proprietary Software Sakshi Singh, Madhvik Verma, Naveen Kumar N Abstract— Open Source software are the most revolutionizing concept that has been put forth in the Information Technology spectrum. This new release has raised quite a lot of brows, similar to when the Internet was launched. For a very long time, there has been a tiff going on between the Proprietary software and the open source software and how the open source software are taking over their ancestors. The technical experts often indulge in conversations as to which of the two software is better and why. People also get confused as to which type of software can be listed as Open source. In this paper we aim to emphasize that the open source development cycle has been there in the market for quite some time and has a huge user base now, thus giving it a strong hold in the software market. It has encouraged the use of new strategically placed actions which has in turn made a huge base for open source software systems. On the other hand, many experts also suggest that this is just momentary and it will pass over a period of time whereas the proprietary software are there to stay. This paper gives the understanding and recommendations for both the kind of software thus giving the user a proper understanding of which software is suitable for their use and thus they can make a better choice for their purpose. Index Terms— Open Source Software, OSS, Free Software, Proprietary Software —————————— —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION ust like the trend of desktop computers and our famous and transitioning from proprietary to open source by going from beloved Internet, Open source software have been both Windows (Internet Explorer) to Linux (Mozilla Firefox). Jpraised and criticized since it first appeared in the markets due to its unexpected arrivals with proprietary software in In this war of survival of the fittest, both the software plat- opposition. There has been a lot of uproar against the Open forms have been worked on day in and day out to become Source Software(OSS) due its wide availability and the various even better and thus increasing their profits tremendously. new aspects it brings forth. Open Source Software(OSS) was There are various kind of strategies that the proprietary soft- developed as a workstation project because it’s source code is ware is adopting in order to beat their opponents which only procured within a license which allows the users to use it, proves the growing effectiveness of open source software modify/change it so as to improve the services and to which has shaken an already established structure. reallocate it in a new framework or in the previous one only. It is constantly processed in an open, user-friendly and transparent environment. Open source software gives 2 LITERATURE REVIEW information, required skill set and the knowledge to use it to The most frequently cited question on the theory of open make it user-friendly which is its main ideology. The idea source software is to find out what tangible and intangible behind it is that when anIJSER individual is going through the profit and motivation are the developers of open source soft- source code certain mistakes and bugs are easily spotted by the ware getting from working so hard on giving the world a free person. Due to the large number of people using it, bugs are software .The possible set of reasons have been divided into found at a very fast rate. two categories, first being the internal reasons like gaining We begin this paper by plainly putting forth a knowledge and learning new things on the way ,and the ex- demonstration of the brief yet interesting history of the open ternal reasons being uncertainty in career and being recog- source software. We also show that the open source software is nized by the fellow members . here for the long run and that, their heritage is important for people to know since people have been perceiving it negatively The second major concern that was proposed is how effective also. The new emerging technologies that come along with are open source software and the growing rivalry between the open source software open a plethora of opportunities for the open source and proprietary platforms. Some researchers have developers and also give us, the consumers, the power to reached a conclusion that open source software is equally effi- change and use the software as we like. In our paper, we aim to cient and equally good in quality as compared to the proprie- compare different aspects of Open source and proprietary tary software. They have reached this conclusion by testing a software and also list down the ups and downs of using each particular software in both a closed and open environment kind of software. and checking its behavior. Mukund stated in his works that the scope of improvement is way more in open source as It is a known fact that since the arrival of open source compared to proprietary because its source code is being criti- software, the sales of proprietary software has tremendously cally examined by each new user getting added to the com- gone down. This is due to the wide availability and ease of use munity. Menell reached a conclusion that for open source of the open source software. In a study conducted by Amazon, they reached a conclusion that their technological costing went software to stay top-notch in its quality they need to have a down by 25 percent since they started to adopt open source presentable structure and should be highly compatible with software. In Munich, a city in Europe, people are actively the upcoming technologies. The completion between open source and proprietary has been a widely talked about topic. The fight can be visualized IJSER © 2017 http://www.ijser.org International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research Volume 8, Issue 12, December-2017 736 ISSN 2229-5518 by seeing the example of Linux vs Windows wherein we see a The software package consists of: non-profit organization competes with a for-profit organiza- a. Free Rights to distribute tion. Linux aims at maximizing the welfare and providing the b. Source Code free access software to the masses, whereas Windows aims only at max- c. Modification control to the user imizing its own profit. This rivalry can have two possible out- d. Distribute the new Modifications done comes as predicted by the experts. The first one being that e. Forbidding the right to modify to a person both of these software get a separate user base which ends who doesn’t follow the licensing agreement their fight and they co-exist in the market or Linux gets kicked D. Proprietary Software out of the market because of the strong-hold of Windows over For this software a set of advantages are entrusted only in the the market. hands of the person or organization that holds the copyright to it. It can be made by an individual or an organization who can either use a pre-existing framework or build the software 3 OFTWARE AND ITS TYPES S from scratch to match their ideologies. They exercise certain Software can be defined as the code that when executed con- advantages and privileges over the software. Unlike open trols and conducts operations of a system/machine to provide source, proprietary software keeps their source code a hidden different functionalities depending on what purpose it solves. mystery. They also do to not make the structure of their pro- Software is a complete sphere consisting of basic to very ex- gram a topic of public knowledge. There are a set of limita- tensive engineering techniques to improve its efficiency and to tions that are put on the software based on the EULA (End- keep up with the upcoming technologies. It acts as a function- User license agreement) which the user has to accept before al unit of the system which is responsible for supervising and getting into using the software. This is done to avoid copy- managing the hardware of the system and to tell the other right infringement by any individual over the software. software that the particular hardware will be used for its own E. Public Domain Software work. It also keeps a copy of the low-key system functions that The owner or the developer of the software completely gives it it might need to call during its course of execution. to the public domain without any copyright or any limit over There are different kinds of software available in the market the accessing of features in the software. like: F. Trial Ware software A. Freeware software It is a time based software meaning that the user can access the These are the software that are available for free on the inter- functionalities only within the restricted time period. The user net and these can be used by anyone irrespective of the region is given a list of the programs or processes which will get they are living in. Andrew Fluegelman came up with the term blocked after a certain time period or a certain number of “Freeware” in 1982 to tell his fellow researchers about a pro- times. After paying the owner organization, the user gets un- ject he worked on called the PC-Talk. Every person using a limited and unrestricted access to all the functions of the soft- freeware software gets a duplicate of the copyright laws that ware and also gets new updates (if any).